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The 10 Essential Public Health Services

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The 10 essential public health services are distributed under the three core functions of assurance, assessment, and policy development. Every community and public health organization should undertake activities that represent the 10 essential public health services. The American Heart Association is a nonprofit agency that embodies some of the essential public health services. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the AHA has many local offices that serve various communities across the country. It is important for the AHA to be involved in building healthier communities because heart disease and stroke are the number 1 and number 5, respectively, leading causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2015). The AHA was founded in 1924 by six cardiologists and is the nation’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. The AHA provides CPR education training, science based treatment guidelines to healthcare professionals, and education to lawmakers, policymakers, and the public to advocate for change that will improve the health of the community (American Heart Association, 2015).
The mission and vision of the American Heart Association
The mission of the AHA is to “build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke”. Their “2020” vision is to “improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent, and reduce deaths from cardiovascular diseases and

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